Long Odds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster

A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)

How many million galaxies there are

Who knows? and each has countless stars in it,

And each rolls through eternities afar

Beneath the threshold of the Infinite.

How is it that will all that space to roam

I should have found this mote that spins and leaps

In what unutterable sunlight, foam

Of what unfathomable starry deeps

Who knows!? And how this thousand million souls

And half a thousand million souls of earth

That swarm, all bound for unimagined goals,

All pioneers of death enrolled at birth,

How were they swept away before my sight,

That I might stand upon the single prick

Of infinite space and time as infinite,

Who knows? Yet here I stand, climacteric,

Having found you. Was it by fall of chance?

Then what a stake against what odds I have won!

Was it determined in God’s ordinance?

Then wondrous love and pity for His son!

Or was it part of an eternal law?

Then how ineffably beneficent!

Each thought excites an ecstasy of awe,

A rapture rending the mind’s firmament.

Infinity -yet you and I have met.

Eternity -yet hand in hand we run.

All odds that I should lose you or forget,

But, soul and spirit and body, we are one.

Is this the child of Chance, or Law, or Will?

Is None or All or One to thank for this?

It will not matter if thanksgiving fill

The endless empyrean with a kiss.

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Poems in English 

• Olney Hymn 26: On Opening A Place For Social Prayer by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 24: Prayer For Children by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 23: Pleading For And With Youth by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 22: Prayer For A Blessing In The Young by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Lines Addressed To Dr. Darwin, Author Of The ‘Botanic Garden.’ by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Joy In Martyrdom by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For The Tomb Of Mr. Hamilton by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1791 by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1790 by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Moss-House In The Shrubbery At Weston by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Hermitage In The Author’s Garden by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In Seditionem Horrendam, Corruptelis Gallicus Ut Fertue, Londini Nuper Exortam by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In Memory Of The Late John Thornton, Esq. by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In A Letter To C. P. Esq. In Imitation Of Shakspeare by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In A Letter To C. P. Esq. Ill With The Rheumatism by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Hymn For The Use Of The Sunday School At Olney by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Hope, Like The Short-lived Ray That Gleams Awhile by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Gratitude And Love To God by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Gratitude, Addressed To Lady Hesketh by William Cowper by William Cowper

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